Chapter Text
Izuku Midoriya was hopeless. He had held this unrealistic dream of saving people, being a hero, for too long. Now he had nothing.
Friends?
His childhood best friend’s words played in his head.
Family?
If only his mother hadn’t grown so distant over time.
His idols?
… Don’t make him laugh. Even All Might said it. A quirkless kid can’t ever be a hero. It was just a fact of life.
He trailed home that day, barely sparing a glance at the explosions he heard coming from a villain fight nearby. Watching it would only hurt more. In theory.
The explosions only grew louder as he took the long way home. Strange. He was walking away from the fight he saw. Yet the yells and cries only got louder and louder.
The ground shook as he turned the corner to see the same villain getting chased right by the Midoriya’s apartment complex. Now he could see clearly, the sludge villain All Might had ‘captured’ earlier. Alive, devouring a middle school kid Midoriya could only now call him-
“Bakugou.” He muttered, covering his mouth in shock, gazing at the chaos being unfolded.
The explosions were everywhere, the sludge villain ramming into building after building.
The heroes?
Did they even have the quirks to stop this monster?
Oh.
This was his fault. He probably distracted All Might from being able to capture the villain. Oh god, this was all his fault. It was his fault that the villain was now slamming directly into the apartment complex, shattering windows, Bakugou’s explosions crumbling the walls. The whole building shifting as the villain slammed a sidekick into the walls.
Screams of civilians echoed in Izuku’s mind as he stood frozen against the street corner. A ringing echoed through his ears as the villain was slammed into the apartment complex again, this time out cold. Onlookers cheered, the villain was defeated. At what cost?
The cost being that the apartments were crumbling to the ground.
More like crashing.
It was a loud sound but Izuku couldn’t hear it. Was his mother in the apartment?
He still stood frozen, unable to get his legs to move. Either far away or towards where thousands of neighbours lay injured and dead.
Standing motionless, the quirkless boy was silent as the paramedics showed up to rescue survivors from the wreckage. Could he bring himself to watch, no. The boy couldn’t, he turned away from the scene. Because that was all it was, a scene that would play endlessly in his head, the sounds muted.
“I’m sorry mom.” He muttered, the tears welling in his eyes as he ran. Far away from where his mother’s corpse was.
The news flickered to life on every billboard in Japan.
‘A villain had been captured, hundreds dead and injured’
The faces of the fallen flashed, only for a second on screen. Inko Midoriya’s kind face plastered for the world to see, only for a second. Her son still ran, along the narrow streets of Mustafu, the horrid sights of tonight playing endlessly in his mind.